Dispatch templates: specify HANDOFF target task explicitly (Task A vs B; PR #641 Cycle-4 follow-up)

[michael-wojcik]

Background

During PR #641 Cycle-4 remediation, the architect surfaced that the dispatch text said "write HANDOFF for Task #56" but the convention per pact-completion-authority.md is HANDOFFs go on WORK tasks (Task B), not TEACHBACK tasks (Task A).

Architect followed the dispatch literal text and wrote the HANDOFF to the TEACHBACK task; lead's correction-message arrived after the architect had already written; architect copied the HANDOFF to the WORK task on next turn.

The miscommunication is structural — the dispatch templates in orchestrate.md, peer-review.md, and comPACT.md describe the Task A+B shape but the per-task description strings can ambiguously reference "Task #N" without specifying which task gets the HANDOFF.

Symptom

Architect's HANDOFF on PR #641 Task #56 (TEACHBACK) instead of #57 (WORK):

"Note: dispatch said 'write HANDOFF for Task #56' but the convention is HANDOFFs go to WORK tasks (Task #57). Worth tightening the dispatch template for future cycles to specify the WORK task explicitly." — architect open_questions, Task #57

Proposal

Tightening 1 — explicit task-letter convention in skill body

In pact-plugin/skills/orchestration/SKILL.md (or wherever Task A+B dispatch convention is documented), add explicit:

## Task A+B HANDOFF target

- **Task A** (TEACHBACK): metadata.teachback_submit. NEVER metadata.handoff.
- **Task B** (WORK): metadata.handoff. NEVER metadata.teachback_submit.

When dispatching, be explicit:
- "Submit teachback to Task A (#{A_id}) metadata.teachback_submit"
- "Write HANDOFF to Task B (#{B_id}) metadata.handoff"

Never say "write HANDOFF to Task #N" without specifying A or B.

Tightening 2 — dispatch template strings

Update orchestrate.md, peer-review.md, comPACT.md template-string examples to use explicit:

# Old (ambiguous):
B_description = "...Per dogfood directive: ... write metadata.handoff..."

# New (explicit):
B_description = "...Per dogfood directive: write metadata.handoff to THIS Task B "
                f"(#{B_id}). NOT to Task A (#{A_id}). ..."

Tightening 3 — pact-teachback skill cross-ref

The pact-teachback skill describes the TEACHBACK metadata shape; add a cross-ref note: "TEACHBACK metadata goes on Task A. The companion Task B receives metadata.handoff after work completes — see [pact-handoff schema]."

Acceptance criteria

• Skill body of orchestration explicitly documents Task A+B HANDOFF target convention.
• orchestrate.md, peer-review.md, comPACT.md dispatch templates use explicit "Task A (#{A_id})" / "Task B (#{B_id})" framing in their description strings.
• pact-teachback skill cross-references the convention.
• No more architect/coder/test-engineer ambiguity-flag observations on this in subsequent cycles (caught by absence of the open_question pattern).

Cross-references

• PR Restore session-startup ritual (#628) #641 Cycle-4: architect surfaced the ambiguity in Task feat(vsm): VSM-Enhanced PACT Framework (Phases 1-7) #57 open_questions
• pact-completion-authority.md — canonical Task A+B convention
• pact-teachback skill
• PR PACT task-completion authority redesign: lead is the acceptance gate for all task completions #491 / feat(#491): completion authority redesign — two-task blockedBy + lead-only completion #578 — Task A+B dispatch model